Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele invited visitors backstage for the fashion brand's Autumn Winter 2020 show, which saw models stand like mannequins inside a rotating glass carousel.
Guests to the show, which took place on 19 February as part of Milan Fashion Week, entered not through the Gucci Hub's main entrance but via a backstage door.

Here they were greeted by models getting their hair and makeup done in anticipation of the imminent show.
The room was brightly lit, with a mint-green floor and rows of white tables in front of illuminated mirrors.

This backstage hubbub and preparation, according to Michele, is the part of the fashion "ceremony" that usually stays hidden ? what he describes as "the struggle of the parturient that accompanies the tremble of creation". The designer chose to put what typically lies behind the curtains at the forefront of the show.
"May the miracle of skilful hands and holding breath come out of the shadows," read Michele's show notes. "May the collective intelligence that takes care of gestation be visible, as shivers rage on."

After passing through the backstage area, visitors then went through a black curtain into an octagonal room with a black floor and soft yet dramatic lighting.
Rows of black seating stands surrounded a cylindrical-shaped structure positioned in the middle of the space, acting as the runway, with a giant, neon-lit metronome at its centre.

A voiceover of Italian film...